Correlation between preoperative factors and final visual acuity after successful rhegmatogenous retinal reattachment

We evaluated the preoperative optical coherence tomographic (OCT) findings in eyes with macula-off rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) and determined the factors that were significantly correlated with the postoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). The length of the preoperative photoreceptors was defined as the distance between the external limiting membrane (ELM) and the outer end of the outer segments of the photoreceptors in the OCT images. The mean length of the photoreceptors was 102.8 ± 28.7 µm with a range of 20 to 159 µm in eyes with RRD. The length of the preoperative photoreceptors was not significantly correlated with the preoperative BCVA but it was significantly correlated with the postoperative BCVA (r = -0.353, P = 0.003). Multivariate regression analyses revealed that the length of the photoreceptors (β = -0.388, P = 0.001) and the preoperative BCVA (β = 0.274, P = 0.021) were the only independent factors that were significantly associated with the postoperative BCVA. The length of the preoperative photoreceptors was significantly correlated with the postoperative photoreceptor length (r = 0.486, P < 0.001). Longer preoperative photoreceptors were significantly correlated with longer postoperative photoreceptors and better BCVA after successful reattachment. These results suggest that the preoperative length of the photoreceptors can be good factor to use for predicting the final BCVA following successful reattachment of macula-off RRD.